Rare earth halide scintillation material

ABSTRACT

A rare earth halide scintillation material the chemical formula of the material being CeBr3+x, wherein 0.0001x0.1. The rare earth halide scintillation material has excellent scintillation properties including high light output, high energy resolution, and fast decay.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Application is a national stage application of PCT/CN2020/125173. This application claims priorities from PCT Application No. PCT/CN2020/125173, filed Oct. 30, 2020, and from the Chinese patent application 201911063295.6 filed Nov. 1, 2019, the content of which are incorporated herein in the entirety by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of inorganic scintillation materials, and more particularly to a rare earth halide scintillation material.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Scintillation materials can be used for the detection of high-energy rays such as α-rays, γ-rays, X-rays and high-energy particles such as neutrons, and are widely applied in nuclear medicine, high-energy physics, safety inspections, oil logging, and other fields.

Scintillation materials are typically applied in the form of single crystals, and also in ceramic or other forms in some cases.

Different application fields have different performance requirements for scintillation materials. But for most application fields, it is desirable for scintillation materials to have a light yield as high as possible, a decay time as short as possible, and an energy resolution as high as possible. Especially for nuclear medicine imaging devices such as positron emission tomography (PET), these parameters are critical to the imaging quality.

The LaBr₃:Ce crystal disclosed by E. V. D. van Loef et al. in 2001 has a high light yield (>60,000 ph/MeV), a short decay time (<30 ns), and a high energy resolution rate (about 3% @662 keV) and is an excellent scintillation material. However, the LaBr₃:Ce crystal has a certain radioactive background due to the inclusion of a small amount of ¹³⁸La radioactive isotope, which affects its application in fields with higher requirements for radioactive background such as nuclide identification and space physics, etc.

The CeBr₃ crystal disclosed by Kanai S. Shah et al. in 2005 has scintillation properties very close to those of LaBr3: Ce and is also a scintillation material with excellent comprehensive performances. It does not contain a radioactive background, and can be used in fields with that require harsh backgrounds. The disadvantage is that the energy resolution is slightly lower to LaBr₃: Ce, usually above 4% (@662 keV).

The luminescence centers of LaBr₃:Ce and CeBr₃ crystals are both Ce³⁺. The difference is that CeBr₃ is an intrinsic scintillator with quite uniform components, which helps achieve better performance consistency for large-size crystals.

The prior art uses alkaline earth metal ions for doping in CeBr₃ crystals, which can further improve the performances of CeBr₃ crystals such as the energy resolution and the energy response linearity. In fact, the method has also been used to improve the performances of Ce³⁺-activated LaBr3:Ce and crystals such as lutetium oxyorthosilicate and lutetium-yttrium oxyorthosilicate. However, alkaline earth metal ions are heterogeneous impurities after all, and have a difference in radius and valence from rare earth ions. This doping is prone to cause crystal growth defects and would cause inconsistent doping concentrations of alkaline earth metal ions in different parts of the crystal due to the segregation phenomenon, which in turn affects the uniformity of crystal performance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The objective of the present invention is to further improve the performance of the CeBr₃ scintillation material through composition adjustment and control, so as to obtain a new material with more excellent comprehensive performance, and to apply the new material in different scenarios.

To achieve the above objective, the first aspect of the present invention provides a rare earth halide scintillation material having the general chemical formula of CeBr_(3+x), wherein 0.0001≤x≤0.1.

In a further embodiment, 0.001≤x≤0.05.

In a further embodiment, the rare earth halide scintillation material contains both Ce³⁺ and Ce⁴⁺.

In a further embodiment the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.

In a further embodiment, the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for growth.

The second aspect of the present invention provides a scintillation detector comprising the rare earth halide scintillation material as previously described.

The third aspect of the present invention provides a PET imager comprising the scintillation detector as previously described.

The fourth aspect of the present invention provides a gamma energy spectrometer comprising the scintillation detector as previously described.

The fifth aspect of the present invention provides an oil logging instrument comprising the scintillation detector as previously described.

The sixth aspect of the present invention provides a lithology scanning imager comprising the scintillation detector as previously described.

The technical solutions of the present invention achieve the following favorable technical effects: the rare earth halide scintillation material obtained by the present invention has excellent scintillation properties. Its comprehensive performance is significantly better than that of the conventional undoped cerium bromide crystal, the uniformity of the crystal is significantly better than that of the cerium bromide crystal doped with alkaline earth metal ion, and the growth yield of the crystal is also significantly increased.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

To further clarify the objective, technical solutions, and advantages of the present invention, a more detailed description of the invention will be conducted by reference to specific embodiments thereof. It should be understood that these descriptions are exemplary only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Additionally, the descriptions of well-known structures and techniques are omitted in the following explanation in order to avoid undesirable confusion of the concepts of the present invention.

The first aspect of the present invention provides a rare earth halide scintillation material. The general chemical formula of the rare earth halide scintillation material is: CeBr_(3+x), wherein 0.0001≤x≤0.1, preferably, 0.001≤x≤0.05.

The above rare earth halide scintillation material may be in the form of powder, ceramic, or single crystal, but is preferably applied in a single crystal form, and the single crystal can be obtained by the Bridgman method.

A significant feature of the present invention is that the rare earth halide scintillation material provided hereby contains both Ce³⁺ and Ce⁴⁺, with the apparent valence state of Ce ions between +3 and +4. The present invention is intended to improve the performance of the rare earth halide scintillation material by adjusting the ratio of rare earth ions to halogen ions and modulating the proportion of Ce⁴⁺.

The present invention can further improve the doping modification of CeBr₃ crystals, and solve the problems of easy incurrence of growth defects and poor consistency of crystal scintillation performance caused by doping heterogeneous alkaline earth metal ions in CeBr₃ crystal in the existing doping scheme. According to the embodiments of the present invention, the halide ions in CeBr₃ are excessive, deviating from its stoichiometric ratio of 3:1 with rare earth ions, inducing a portion of Ce³⁺ to be converted into Ce⁴⁺ based on charge balance, thereby improving the uniformity of crystal performance and effectively avoiding the problems of growth defects and uneven segregation caused by heterogeneous doping.

According to the embodiments of the present invention, the following methods are employed to obtain the rare earth halide scintillation material having the chemical formula of CeBr_(3+x).

Method 1: The anhydrous CeBr₃ feedstock used to grow CeBr₃ crystals is heated in an environment containing Br₂ vapor, which absorbs a small amount of Br₂ vapor so that the molar ratio of Br to rare earth ions in the feedstock is greater than the stoichiometric ratio of 3:1. By controlling the Br₂ vapor concentration and the heating time, cerium bromide feedstock with a different surplus of Br can be obtained. This Br-rich cerium bromide feedstock can be employed to grow single crystal to obtain the rare earth halide scintillation materials with the chemical formula CeBr_(3+x) described in the present invention.

Method 2: The stoichiometric CeBr₃ feedstock is employed to grow the CeBr₃ crystals conforming to the stoichiometric ratio. Then the crystals are annealed in a dry inert gas (e.g., Ar gas) containing a portion of Br₂ vapor so that Br in the CeBr₃ crystals exceeds the stoichiometric ratio, obtaining the rare earth halide scintillation material having the chemical formula of CeBr_(3+x) as described in the present invention.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, the rare earth halide scintillation material obtained by the present invention has excellent scintillation properties. Its comprehensive performance is significantly better than that of the conventional undoped cerium bromide crystal, the uniformity of the crystal is significantly better than that of the cerium bromide crystal doped with alkaline earth metal ion, and the growth yield of the crystal is also significantly increased.

It is found that favorable implementation results can also be achieved when the technical idea of the present invention is applied to other Ce-activated rare earth halide scintillation materials.

It should be noted that the surplus y of Br ions in the present invention is limited to a relatively small range. In the present invention, the range of Br ion surplus is 0.0001≤y≤0.1, preferably 0.001≤y≤0.05. Within the range of the present invention, the crystals are colorless or light yellow and have excellent scintillation properties. However, an excessively high surplus of Br ions will cause the crystals to appear more pronounced yellow, and cause problems such as decreased light yield, poor energy resolution, and prolonged decay time.

The present invention also relates to a scintillation detector comprising the above mentioned rare earth halide scintillation material, as well as PET scanners, gamma energy spectrometers, oil logging instruments or lithology scanning imagers comprising the scintillation detector.

The favorable effects of the present invention will be further illustrated below with reference to specific embodiments.

Comparative Example 1: 120 g of anhydrous CeBr₃ (99.99%) is accurately weighed in an Ar-filled glovebox and loaded into a quartz crucible with the diameter of 25 mm. After the quartz crucible is taken out of the glove box, it is immediately connected to the vacuum system to be vacuumized. Its opening is sealed by combustion when the vacuum degree reaches 1×10⁻³ Pa. The quartz crucible is placed in a Bridgman crystal furnace for single crystal growth. The temperature of the high temperature zone is 800° C. and the temperature of the low temperature zone is 650° C. The temperature gradient of the gradient zone is about 10° C./cm, the crucible descending rate is 0.5-2 mm/h and the total growth time is about 15 days. The obtained crystals are transparent and colorless with a length of about 5 cm. The crystal is cut and processed in the glove box into a cylindrical sample of Φ25 mm×25 mm for tests on the light yield, decay time and energy resolution and for analysis of the crystal composition.

Comparative Example 2: 120 g of anhydrous CeBr₃ (99.99%) and 0.039 g of anhydrous SrBr₂ (99.99%) are accurately weighed in an Ar-filled glovebox. After mixed evenly they are loaded into a quartz crucible with the diameter of 25 mm. Other operations are the same as those in Comparative Example 1.

Example 1: 120 g of anhydrous CeBr_(3.05) (99.99%) is accurately weighed in an Ar-filled glovebox and loaded into a quartz crucible with the diameter of 25 mm. The remaining operations are the same as those in Comparative Example 1.

Examples 2-7: Except for the different ratio of raw materials, the other operations are the same as those in Example 1.

The detailed comparisons of all examples are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Light Decay Energy Yield Time Resolution Ex. Chemical Formula (ph/MeV) (ns) (@662 keV) Comparative CeBr₃ 54000 18 4.5% Example 1 Comparative CeSr_(0.0005)Br_(3.001) 56000 20 4.0% Example 2 Example1 CeBr_(3.05) 64000 16 3.5% Example 2 CeBr_(3.001) 62000 17 3.6% Example 3 CeBr_(3.008) 65000 18 3.4% Examplet 4 CeBr_(3.1) 58000 18 3.7% Example 5 CeBr_(3.0001) 59000 17 3.8% Example 6 CeBr_(3.005) 64000 17 3.3% Example 7 CeBr_(3.01) 65000 17 3.2%

To sum up, the present invention provides a rare earth halide scintillation material having a chemical formula of CeBr_(3+x) wherein 0.0001≤x≤0.1. The rare earth halide scintillation materials obtained by the present invention have excellent scintillation performance. Its comprehensive performance is significantly better than that of the conventional undoped cerium bromide crystal, the uniformity of the crystal is significantly better than that of the cerium bromide crystal doped with alkaline earth metal ion, and the yield of the crystal is also significantly increased.

It is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description of the present invention has been presented only for exemplary illustrations and explanations of the principles of the present invention, and not for the purpose of limiting the invention. Accordingly, any modifications, equivalent replacements and improvements, etc. Which are made with the spirit and scope of the present invention, are supposed to be included within the protection scope of the present invention. Further, the appended claims of the present invention are intended to cover all such modifications and changes which fall within the scope and bound of the appended claims, or their equivalents. 

The invention claimed is:
 1. A rare earth halide scintillation material, wherein the general chemical formula of the rare earth halide scintillation material is CeBr_(3+x), wherein 0.0001≤x≤0.1 and the rare earth halide scintillation material contains both Ce³⁺ and Ce⁴⁺.
 2. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein 0.001≤x≤0.05.
 3. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 2, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.
 4. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 2, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for growth.
 5. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.
 6. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 5, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for growth.
 7. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 1, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for growth.
 8. A scintillation detector, comprising the rare earth halide scintillation material of claim
 1. 9. A PET scanning imager, comprising the scintillation detector of claim
 8. 10. A gamma energy spectrometer, comprising the scintillation detector of claim
 8. 11. An oil logging instrument, comprising the scintillation detector of claim
 8. 12. A lithology scanning imager, comprising the scintillation detector of claim
 8. 13. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 8, wherein 0.001≤x≤0.05.
 14. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 8, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is a single crystal.
 15. The rare earth halide scintillation material of claim 8, wherein the rare earth halide scintillation material is obtained by adopting a Bridgman method for growth. 